KeyGene and Wageningen UR Launch New Genomic Facility

Today Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) and KeyGene announce the start of a joint DNA sequencing facility with so-called second and third generation DNA sequencers with accompanying ICT and bio-informatics infrastructure. The facility is founded thanks to a 1.7 million Euro investment with the financial support of the CAT-AgroFood of Wageningen UR, an initiative of the Dutch government (ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation), the Province of Gelderland and Wageningen UR. The facility will be accessible to other parties, such as breeding companies, universities and hospitals and will belong to the top DNA research facilities in Europe.

The new facility will operate an Illumina® HiSeq™ 2000 sequencer and a PacBio RS Sequencing machine with accompanying bio-informatics infrastructure. The new state-of-the art sequencing facility will enable KeyGene and Wageningen UR to execute genomics research for a broad array of samples from microbial, plant, animal and human origin. Projects will be handled in the joint facility but executed by either KeyGene or Wagening UR in a bilateral way with each customer.

Andries Koops, Business Unit Manager at Wageningen UR: “Plant breeding has already allowed for a dramatic increase in yield and quality during the past one hundred years. We will use the facility to further speed up this improvement, in order to help the world cope with the growing world population and climate change. Better insight into the genetic variation will enable us to make real leaps in plant breeding. Due to the enormous capacity of the facility hundreds of genomes can be sequenced at the same time. This will allow the researchers to study genetic variation, for instance within a crop like potato, tomato or genetically even more complex crops like strawberry, and to develop new breeding strategies and techniques.”

Michiel van Eijk, VP Technology & Trait Mechanisms of KeyGene comments: “In-house access to these sequencing platforms will further fuel our innovations in agricultural breeding applications. Furthermore, the facility will also enable us to apply the suite of proprietary high-throughput Sequence Based Breeding applications that we have successfully developed over the past years. These include the Whole Genome Profiling (WGP™) physical mapping methodology, the KeyPoint® mutation detection method, the CRoPS® SNP identification method and, most recently, our Sequence Based Genotyping technology. We will roll out these products towards customers in the plant breeding industry around the globe.” Michiel van Eijk continues with stating: “The new facility also intensifies the collaborations between Wageningen UR and KeyGene. Both organizations have a strong commitment to generate solutions providing our growing world population with innovative and sustainable agricultural products.”

Petra Caessens, Manager Operations CAT-AgroFood comments: ‘This joint initiative is a great example of facility sharing across organizations. In addition, other players in the AgroFood research domain can make use of the new facilities and – if relevant - draw upon each other’s expertise. It will strengthen innovation initiatives in the region.”

Source: wur.nl

RELATED ARTICLES

Here's a discovery well worth toasting: A research team led by Professor Brandon Gaut with the University of California, Irvine and Professor Dario Cantu with the University of California, Davis has deciphered the genome of the Chardonnay grape.

"Lingering ash." That's what the U.S. Forest Service calls the relatively few green and white ash trees that survive the emerald ash borer onslaught. Those trees do not survive by accident, and that may save the species, according to Penn State researchers, who conducted a six-year study of ash decline and mortality.